I Was Punched In The Stomach!
Not literally, but that’s what it feels like. So I’ve been really slacking off in working out the abs lately so I decided to do at least one ab exercise at the end of every trip to the gym. So to continue my endless quest to find new ways to torture myself I started Googling for abs videos and I came across this gem, the “Bench Press Abs Crunch”. Basically you lie down on the flat bench and raise your legs above you with legs up and bent at the knees. You raise the barbell and keep your arms straight up (unbent). Then proceed to crunch up while pushing the barbell straight up (as opposed to it moving forwards). Your shoulders don’t come very far off of the bench.
Add this to the list of exercises I’ve never seen done at my gym before. I definitely wanted to give these a try. After I was done working the legs (gag) on Saturday I headed over to the bench press area. I put a whopping five pounds on each side of the barbell and gave it a whirl. I quickly digressed from “These aren’t so bad!” to “Oh crap…” to “Please make it stop!”
I kept working up in weight between sets and after my third set I had an incredible thirty pounds of weight on the barbell. I can only imagine what people who were walking by when I was resting between sets thought when it looked like I was sitting on the bench huffing and puffing after benching thirty pounds. “That’s right ladies, I benched all that weight myself.” LOL
These really kicked my @ss. Today I not only have sore legs but it feels like a mule kicked me in the stomach. Awesome! I’m definitely going to do these once a week now!
March 9, 2008 at 11:28 pm
I got one for you bro. I got this from a Navy Seal bud I use to work with. It is called
"The Sweet Sixteen"
Lay on your back or on a bench, raise you legs up and with your legs in the air write out the numbers 1-16 doing the number 8 twice.
That would be 1 set, I can only do one and I am in Pain. That sould add some torture pain to your workout…
March 9, 2008 at 11:42 pm
WOW! Hey i like that i think i am going to try that! Thanks for posting that!
March 10, 2008 at 11:43 pm
Very interesting exercise indeed…I guess, however, that it’s intended for people in an advanced degree of abs development… So I’ll keep the idea for the time when I -hopefully- get that point… Thanks for the post!
March 11, 2008 at 2:20 am
interesting. I am also slacking in my abs! Don’t think I am ready for that one yet! LOL…
March 11, 2008 at 8:23 pm
wahooo! 30 pounds baby!! You got it goin’ on (yup, that’s what I would have said!!) Seriously, that sounds awesome and I am going to try that tomorrow morning…. thanks for that. Ummmm… I will have you know that I have had no chocolate for 3 weeks…:) it is the little victories!! thanks for writing!